The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State

Auberon Herbert

Publication Year: 2012

Auberon Herbert (1838–1906) is an eloquent, forceful, and uncompromising defender of liberty—indeed, in the judgment of Richard M. Ebeling he is "one of the most important and articulate advocates of liberty in the last two hundred years." Herbert was a major participant in the profound and wide-ranging intellectual ferment of the late Victorian age. He formulated a system of "thorough" individualism that he described as "voluntaryism." To Herbert, "you will not make people wiser and better by taking liberty of action from them. A man can learn only when he is free to act." As Eric Mack writes, "Carrying natural rights theory to its logical limits, Herbert demanded complete social and economic freedom for all noncoercive individuals and the radical restriction of the use of force to the role of protecting those freedoms—including the freedom of peaceful persons to withhold support from any or all state activities." There are ten essays.

Title Page, Copyright, Dedication

Table of Contents

Introduction

This collection of essays makes available the major and
representative writings in political philosophy of one
of the distinctive figures in the profound and wideranging
intellectual debate which took place during the
late Victorian age. It was...

Selective Bibliography

Essay One. The Choices Between Personal Freedom and State Protection

In the midst of much that is written and said about progress
and improvement, it is seldom perceived how disorderly
are our usual habits of political thinking. Those
who are engaged in political work usually reject any kind
of systematic thought...

Essay Three.
A Politician In Sight of Haven

In a small but cheerful lodging overlooking the Thames,
Angus found Markham. After a few words he began
to pour out his old troubles. Was it possible to act honestly
with party? Did it not lead to a constant sacrifice
of convictions, or, indeed...

Essay Four. The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State, p. 123

We need not look for better words, than those used
by Mr. Herbert Spencer,* to describe the aim which we place before ourselves, as the party of individual liberty.
That aim is to secure "the liberty of each, limited
alone by the...

Essay Five. The Ethics of Dynamite

I hasten to reassure Mrs. Grundy as regards all her
anxieties. I am happy to say, even at the cost of a
dull article, that I am wholly orthodox on this question
of villainous dynamite. I detest dynamite, my dear
madam, for your own excellent reasons, because it is
most treacherous, cruel...

Essay Six. Salvation by Force, p. 227

My criticism upon Mr. Hobson's recent paper in defense
of socialism must be that he takes much
trouble to prove that which is not in dispute, that which
almost all of us, I presume, are ready to admit, and which,
when admitted, can be of...

Essay Seven. Lost in the Region of Phrases

I owe many apologies both to the editor and to Mr.
Hobson for the long delay which has taken place as
regards this discussion. I can only hope they may both
be willing to forgive me. And now to our business in
hand. I tried in my last...

Essay Eight. Mr. Spencer and the Great Machine

I began my lecture at Oxford by expressing my sense
of the debt that we owed to Mr. Spencer for his
splendid attempt to show us the great meanings that
underlie all things-the order, the intelligibility, the
coherence, that exist in this...

Essay Nine. A Plea For Voluntaryism

We, who call ourselves voluntaryists, appeal to you
to free yourselves from these many systems of state
force, which are rendering imposible the true and happy
life of the nations of today. This ceaseless effort to compel
each other, in turn for each...

Essay Ten. The Principles of Voluntaryism and Free Life

We voluntaryists believe that no true progress can be
made until we frankly recognize the great truth that
every individual, who lives within the sphere of his own
rights, as a self-owner, and has not himself first aggressed
upon others by employing...

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